Dream Machines brings together five artists and collaboratives who are modern day Da Vinci’s – contemporary polymaths – whose practice intersects art, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They are simultaneously artist, scientist, engineer, thinker and inventor.
The artists, James Dodd, Wade Marynowsky, David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton, Cameron Robbins, and Tricky Walsh, are at the forefront of contemporary art practice in Australia. They produce functional artworks and imagined machines which audiences can engage and interact with: a remote controlled painting machine, a machine that interprets the movement of the sun, a theoretical communication device, three automatons created from vintage gramophones, and robots that perform an opera.
At the core of this project are ideas centred around DIY aesthetics, backyard inventors and the suburban shed, the adaptation of existing and utilitarian objects, the machine aesthetic, hacking and re-purposing, and how creativity is integral to innovation.
The exhibition launches on Friday the 21st of July and I will be working in the gallery over the weekend immediately following. I will also be presenting a master class in association with the exhibition in which I will offer a full day’s experience of working on a version of the Painting Mill.
My participation in this project has been generously supported by the South Australian Government via Arts South Australia.